The School Leadership Show

This is the School Leadership Show. Learn everything you need to know to thrive in school administration. The School leadership show is where ordinary school administrators become extraordinary leaders. The only podcast dedicated to helping practicing and aspiring school leaders realize their potential, advance their careers, and achieve work-life balance, The School Leadership Show brings together the greatest minds from inside and outside of education to deliver you the insights and tools you need to succeed in school leadership.

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In this episode I sit down with Nicola Giardina, a museum educator, consultant, and founder of Inspiring Learners through Art. She has also recently publishedThe More We Look, the Deeper it Gets: Transforming the Curriculum Through Art. Nicola and I talk about her approach to engaging students in higher level thinking through art using a framework that she developed called the Pyramid of Inquiry. You can learn more about Nicola and her work and find her book at her website:https://nicolagiardina.com/. Please enjoy this conversation with Nicola Giardina.

Send your comments, questions, and show ideas tomike@schoolleadershipshow.com. Consider rating the podcast in iTunes and leaving a comment. And please pass the show along to your colleagues. If you or someone you know would like to sponsor the show, send me an email at mike@schoolleadershipshow.com.

In this episode I sit down with Mike Petrilli, the president of theThomas B. Fordham Institute, and wildly prolific writer about education and education policy. We also talk about how policy can and and ought to policy into practice at the local level. I wanted to share a little more about Mike’s background from theThomas B. Fordam Institute’s websitebecause it is so impressive:

Send your comments, questions, and show ideas tomike@schoolleadershipshow.com. Consider rating the podcast in iTunes and leaving a comment. And please pass the show along to your colleagues. If you or someone you know would like to sponsor the show, send me an email at mike@schoolleadershipshow.com.

This episode is a departure from our usual fare on the School Leadership Show. Today I sit down with Jack, a high school junior with an uncanny knowledge of film and pop culture. Jack is the co-host of The Everything Geek podcast (available in iTunes and @EveryGeekPod on Twitter), and he and I argue about the best movies where high school plays a central role in the story. Jack is one of the smartest and funniest humans I know. I hope you enjoy this back to school episode and that you have a great start to your school year.

Send your comments, questions, and show ideas tomike@schoolleadershipshow.com. Consider rating the podcast in iTunes and leaving a comment. And please pass the show along to your colleagues. If you or someone you know would like to sponsor the show, send me an email at mike@schoolleadershipshow.com

I found Dan Rockwell’s blog Leadership Freak (www.leadershipfreak.blog) through The Marshall Memo. And now I’m hooked. His short but powerful blog posts have become part of my daily routine. During this conversation, Dan and I talk about the origin of the blog and his ongoing work with leaders through workshops, seminars, and individual coaching sessions. Here are a couple of notes from his website just to reinforce what a big deal he is:

Inc Magazine Top Fifty Leadership and Management Expert and Top 100 Great Leadership Speakers.

American Management Association Top 30 Leader in Business of 2014.

According to the Center for Management and Organization Effectiveness, the Leadership Freak blog is the most socially shared leadership blog on the Internet.

We go deep on some big leadership concepts, and we get granular with very practical strategies for being a better leader. I loved this time with Dan, and I made him promise me a part 2.

Send your comments, questions, and show ideas tomike@schoolleadershipshow.com. Consider rating the podcast in itunes and leaving a comment. And please pass the show along to your colleagues. If you or someone you know would like to sponsor the show, send me an email at mike@schoolleadershipshow.com.

In this episode sometimes co-host Dan White and I get into all things teams - how to build them, how to think about the larger context, and much more.

Send your comments, questions, and show ideas tomike@schoolleadershipshow.com. Consider rating the podcast in iTunes and leaving a comment. And please pass the show along to your colleagues. If you or someone you know would like to sponsor the show, send me an email at mike@schoolleadershipshow.com.

In this episode occasional co-host Dan White and I interview, Noah, a recent high school graduate about his experiences in a typical Upstate New York High School. Noah’s candid assessment of what works and what doesn’t in our classrooms is refreshing and compelling. And it’s certainly not all rainbows and unicorns.

Send your comments, questions, and show ideas tomike@schoolleadershipshow.com. Consider rating the podcast in iTunes and leaving a comment. And please pass the show along to your colleagues. If you or someone you know would like to sponsor the show, send me an email at mike@schoolleadershipshow.com.

Dr. Barbara Oakley is an educator, writer, and engineer with one of the coolest backstories I’ve ever heard. She has become an expert on learning and her most recent bookLearning How to Learn: A Guide for Kids and Teensis spectacular - so spectacular that my 16-year-old daughter was impressed. Barb and I have a wide-ranging conversation about her background, learning in general, a little bit about math instruction specifically, and her thoughts on how we can improve teaching and learning in our schools. I was really impressed with Barb, and I made her promise to do a part two. I hope you enjoy her story and insights as much as I did.

Send your comments, questions, and show ideas tomike@schoolleadershipshow.com. Consider rating the podcast in iTunes and leaving a comment. And please pass the show along to your colleagues. If you or someone you know would like to sponsor the show, send me an email at mike@schoolleadershipshow.com.

In this episode I interview former Phi Delta Kappan Editor-in-Chief Joan Richardson. Joan is now in charge of polling for PDK and she has written an article on the 50-year history of the annual Kappan poll of U.S. attitudes toward public schools (http://pdkpoll.org/history). There is also a cool timeline compiling key findings from the last five decades of results, along with noteworthy events in the nation each year (http://pdkpoll.org/timeline). I had no idea about the origins of this annual poll, and I hope you find it as fascinating as I did. Joan has promised to come back on the show when the results of the current year’s poll are released in September.

Send your comments, questions, and show ideas tomike@schoolleadershipshow.com. Consider rating the podcast in iTunes and leaving a comment. And please pass the show along to your colleagues. If you or someone you know would like to sponsor the show, send me an email at mike@schoolleadershipshow.com.

A conversation withThe Main Idea’sJenn David-Lang and Justin Baeder, the author of Now We’re Talking! 21 Days to High-Performance Instructional Leadership

Jenn David-Lang ofThe Main Ideareturns to the show and we talk with Justin Baeder, the author ofNow We’re Talking! 21 Days to High-Performance Instructional Leadership. Justin discusses his model for turning daily classroom visits into a powerful habit for instructional improvement. He offers a practical approach to mastering this high-leverage technique for helping teachers reflect on their practice and grow as professionals.

Send your comments, questions, and show ideas tomike@schoolleadershipshow.com. Consider rating the podcast in iTunes and leaving a comment. And please pass the show along to your colleagues. If you or someone you know would like to sponsor the show, send me an email at mike@schoolleadershipshow.com.

Dr. Stephanie Evergreen's books,Presenting Data EffectivelyandEffective Data Visualization,are must-haves for any leader who uses data (and what leader doesn’t use data?). Stephanie and I talk about trends she’s seeing in the world of presentations and data visualization. We also get into her 1-3-25 report format, creating better handouts, qualitative data, and so much more.

Below are a couple of the links that Stephanie mentions during the interview:

Send your comments, questions, and show ideas tomike@schoolleadershipshow.com. Consider rating the podcast in iTunes and leaving a comment. And please pass the show along to your colleagues. If you or someone you know would like to sponsor the show, send me an email at mike@schoolleadershipshow.com.

During this conversation, Jenn and I talk about Shane Safir’s 2017 bookListening Leader: Creating the Conditions for Equitable School Transformation. At the intersection of neuroscience, mindfulness, and equity is the need to be a listening leader. Safir creates a framework and makes a case for the transformative power of listening. As with all of the books that Jenn selects for The Main Idea,TheListening Leaderhas the perfect balance of the theoretical and the practical.

You can reach Jenn through her website for The Main Idea (www.themainidea.net). I’m a happy subscriber of The Main Idea and a big fan of Jenn’s work. She’s offered to send listeners of this episode a free summary ofThe Listening Leaderif you send her an email atJ.David-Lang@TheMainIdea.net. It’s definitely worth the time. Enjoy this interview with Jenn David-Lang.

Send your comments, questions, and show ideas tomike@schoolleadershipshow.com. Consider rating the podcast in itunes and leaving a comment. And please pass the show along to your colleagues. If you or someone you know would like to sponsor the show, send me an email at mike@schoolleadershipshow.com.

During this conversation, Jenn and I talk with teacher and author Jessica Lahey about her 2016 bookThe Gift of Failure: How the Best Parents Learn to Let Go So their Children Can Succeed. This is a wide-ranging discussion where we talk about so many topics like motivation and executive functioning, the critical time that is middle school, implications for teacher training, what school administrators can do to change mindsets about failure, the power of school culture, and so much more.

The best way to find Jess is to start at her website:http://www.jessicalahey.com/. You can reach Jenn at her website for The Main Idea (www.themainidea.net). I’m a happy subscriber of The Main Idea and a big fan of Jenn’s work. She’s offered to send listeners of this episode a free summary ofThe Gift of Failureif you send her an email atJ.David-Lang@TheMainIdea.net. It’s definitely worth the time. Enjoy this interview with Jess Lahey and Jenn David-Lang.

Send your comments, questions, and show ideas tomike@schoolleadershipshow.com. Consider rating the podcast in iTunes and leaving a comment. And please pass the show along to your colleagues. If you or someone you know would like to sponsor the show, send me an email at mike@schoolleadershipshow.com.

A conversation with Jenn David-Lang aboutThe Art of Coaching Teams: Building Resilient Communities That Transform Schools, a book by Elena Aguilar.

During this conversation, Jenn and I talk about her summary of the bookThe Art of Coaching Teams: Building Resilient Communities That Transform Schools, a book by Elena Aguilar. This book is packed with practical strategies for helping all of the teams you work with improve their effectiveness. It’s a great conversation, and as always, I’m smarter for having talked with Jenn.

You can reach Jenn at her website for The Main Idea (www.themainidea.net). I’m a happy subscriber of The Main Idea and a big fan of Jenn’s work. She’s offered to send listeners of this episode a free summary ofThe Art of Coaching Teamsif you send her an email atJ.David-Lang@TheMainIdea.net. It’s definitely worth the time. Enjoy this interview with Jenn David-Lang.

Send your comments, questions, and show ideas tomike@schoolleadershipshow.com. Consider rating the podcast in itunes and leaving a comment. And please pass the show along to your colleagues. If you or someone you know would like to sponsor the show, send me an email at mike@schoolleadershipshow.com.

During this conversation, Jenn and I talk about her summary of the bookThe Mindful School Leader: Practices to Transform Your Leadership and School, a book by Valerie Brown and Kirsten Olson. We both make a case for the need for school administrators to develop their own mindfulness practices. Science, stories, and strategies. It’s all here. And if you don’t think you have time for mindfulness practices, then you need them more than anyone.

You can reach Jenn at her website for The Main Idea (www.themainidea.net). I’m a happy subscriber of The Main Idea and a big fan of Jenn’s work. She’s offered to send listeners of this episode a free summary ofThe Mindful School Leaderif you send her an email atJ.David-Lang@TheMainIdea.net. It’s definitely worth the time. Enjoy this interview with Jenn David-Lang.

Send your comments, questions, and show ideas tomike@schoolleadershipshow.com. Consider rating the podcast in itunes and leaving a comment. And please pass the show along to your colleagues. If you would like to support the show, visitwww.patreon.com/leadership.

In this episode veteran superintendent Dan White and I have a wide-ranging conversation about context-based leadership. Much of what we talk about is drawn from our many years of working with school leaders on the state, regional, and national levels. This is the first in a series of episodes with Dan related to the nuts and bolts of leadership in general and school leadership specifically based on our popular workshopLiquid Gold for Leaders: 30 Rules No One Has the Guts to Tell You. Enjoy this conversation with Dan White.

Send your comments, questions, and show ideas tomike@schoolleadershipshow.com. Consider rating the podcast in itunes and leaving a comment. And please pass the show along to your colleagues. If you would like to support the show, visitwww.patreon.com/leadership.

Jenn David-Lang makes her fifth appearance on the show. She still holds the record. And there’s a reason I keep talking to Jenn - I always learn so much. Jenn produces The Main Idea (http://www.themainidea.net/), a monthly summary of a current education book. Jenn has over 30,000 subscribers and has an incredible perspective on all things education. We talk about David Allen’s updated edition of his classicGetting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. We get into Allen’s organizational system to help “people with too much to do and too little time,” Jenn’s words.

You can reach Jenn at her website for The Main Idea (www.themainidea.net). I’m a happy subscriber of The Main Idea and a big fan of Jenn’s work. She’s offered to send listeners of this episode a free summaries ofGetting Things Doneif you send her an email atJ.David-Lang@TheMainIdea.net. It’s definitely worth the time. Enjoy this interview with Jenn David-Lang.

Jenn David-Lang makes her fourth appearance on the show. She now holds the record. And there’s a reason I keep talking to Jenn - I always learn so much. Jenn produces The Main Idea (http://www.themainidea.net/), a monthly summary of a current education book. Jenn has over 30,000 subscribers and has an incredible perspective on all things education. We talk about Paul Bambrick-Santoyo’s new bookGet Better Faster: A 90-Day Plan for Coaching New Teachers. We get into Paul’s model for coaching and how he recommends setting up an entire system. The part about real-time, in-the-moment feedback is really cool.

You can reach Jenn at her website for The Main Idea (www.themainidea.net). I’m a happy subscriber of The Main Idea and a big fan of Jenn’s work. She’s offered to send listeners of the show some free book summaries if you send her an email atJ.David-Lang@TheMainIdea.net. It’s definitely worth the time. Enjoy this interview with Jenn David-Lang.

Send your comments, questions, and show ideas tomike@schoolleadershipshow.com. Consider rating the podcast in itunes and leaving a comment. And please pass the show along to your colleagues. If you would like to support the show, visitwww.patreon.com/leadership.

My favorite Professional Office Organizer, Kacy Paide, and I go a second round on getting and staying organized. Kacy shares many strategies and tips to help us all get our acts together. From the perils of too many systems to the power of structures, we get into lots of areas of organization and productivity. Kacy and I talked about the following resources during the interview:

You can learn more about Kacy and her work atwww.theinspiredoffice.com. I can’t say enough about her work and how much she has helped me become more organized, efficient, and effective at work and at home. Enjoy this follow up interview with Kacy Paide.

Send your comments, questions, and show ideas tomike@schoolleadershipshow.com. Consider rating the podcast in itunes and leaving a comment. And please pass the show along to your colleagues. If you would like to support the show, visitwww.patreon.com/leadership.

Parenting and educating teenagers can be challenging. Teenage girls can take that challenge to a whole new level. In this episode Jenn David-Lang and her Husband Tim David-Lang and I discuss Lisa Damour’s 2016 book Untangled: Guiding Teenage Girls Through the Seven Transitions into Adulthood. Not many books have had the impact on my thinking, my work, and my parenting that this one has had. Jenn, Tim, and I have a lively conversation about what we learned from the book and our own experiences putting the information into practice at work and at home. You’ll remember Jenn from two previous podcast appearances. She produces The Main Idea (http://www.themainidea.net/), a monthly summary of a current education book and has a ton of experience in education. Tim David-Lang is a guidance counselor for the New York City Department of Education and has worked with teenagers for many years. And like me, Jenn and Tim are the parents of teenage girls. Enjoy this conversation abouta great book. Jenn has graciously agreed to share discussion questions and a summary of helpful language from the book. You can email her directly atj.davidlang@gmail.com, and she’ll send them to you.

As always, send your comments, questions, and show ideas tomike@schoolleadershipshow.com. Consider rating the podcast in iTunes and leaving a comment. And please pass the show along to your colleagues.

In this episode I interview Brad and Genevieve Ermeling, two experienced educators who have collaborated on the bestselling book Teaching Better: Igniting and Sustaining Instructional Improvement. I loved talking with this husband and wife team about everything from what works in changing practice to mistakes and pitfalls administrators can avoid. The depth of their collective experience in teaching, learning, research, and school improvement is impressive. Information about Brad and Genevieve and their book can be found at their website www.teachingbetter.com (And why didn’t I register that domain name?). You can also follow them on Twitter @BradErmeling and @Graff_Ermeling. I hope you enjoy this interview with Brad and Genevieve Ermeling.

Brad and Genevieve will be hosting a free webinar on June 6, featuring more information on many of the topics discussed in this interview. You can learn more and register atwww.Corwin.com. Choose online learning from the menu and click on webinars.

As always, send your comments, questions, and show ideas tomike@schoolleadershipshow.com. Consider rating the podcast in iTunes and leaving a comment. And please pass the show along to your colleagues.

In this episode I interview Dr. Maurice Elias, an accomplished author and professor of clinical psychology and clinical health at Rutgers University. He is also the director of the Rutgers Social-Emotional Learning Lab, and Academic Director of The Collaborative, Rutgers' Center for Community-Based Research and Service. Maurice and I talk about the importance of social emotional learning and character development, particularly when it comes to adolescents. We get into emotional intelligence, misconceptions about SEL, what’s most important for school leaders to know, trauma-informed care, fostering a supportive climate, and mistakes to avoid. Maurice mentions several helpful links during the interview including the following:

He also blogs at edutopia.org: http://www.edutopia.org/user/67. And I encourage you to check out his book The Other Side of the Report Card: Assessing Students' Social, Emotional, and Character Development. I found it on Amazon.com.You can learn more about Maurice and his work at http://www.secdlab.org/.

As always, send your comments, questions, and show ideas to mike@schoolleadershipshow.com. Consider rating the podcast in iTunes and leaving a comment. And please pass the show along to your colleagues.

Dr. Rebecca Stobaugh is an experienced teacher and principal who is now an author, consultant, and college professor. Early in her career as a middle school principal, Beckie saw the need to improve the critical thinking skills of her students. We talk about what she learned during that process including the five misconceptions about critical thinking. While we focus primarily on supporting teachers as they support students developing critical thinking skills, the conversation transcends the specific content and hits many important leadership concepts - the importance of mentors, achieving critical mass for change, focusing initiatives. This was a great conversation, and you can learn more about Beckie and her work at the Mentoring Minds website: https://www.mentoringminds.com/meet-us. You can also follow Beckie on Twitter @RebeccaStobaugh.

As always, send your comments, questions, and show ideas to mike@schoolleadershipshow.com. Consider rating the podcast in iTunes and leaving a comment. And please pass the show along to your colleagues.

Mike Vardy is the host of the wildly popular Productivityist Podcast (http://productivityist.com/). He is also a writer, speaker, and productivity strategist. He’s also great to talk to. Mike and I have a lively discussion about all things productivity. What’s cool is that we start with the big picture: task centric vs. time centric thinking, mode-based theming for your days, and Mike’s own NOW Year Method. Then we move into specific skill and techniques including approaches to scheduling and setting up anchors. Mike generously provided a link for School Leadership Show listeners to download his NOW Year Method Basic Workflow (https://productivityist.com/doughty).

You can learn more about Mike and his work you can visit the Productivityist website or Mike’s personal site at http://mikevardy.com/. And make sure you subscribe to The Productivityist Podcast in iTunes and other podcast outlets.

As always, send your comments, questions, and show ideas to mike@schoolleadershipshow.com. Consider rating the podcast in itunes and leaving a comment. And please pass the show along to your colleagues.

In this episode I interview Erika Andersen, an author, trainer, consultant, and executive coach. The time flew by. Erika shares her recent work on how to become a better learner (from her new book Be Bad First - Get Good at Things FAST to Stay Ready for the Future). This might sound simple, but it’s hard work. Her insightful model (ANEW) is a simple and practical approach to learning new things in all aspects of our lives. I also tap into Erika’s more than 30 years of coaching high-performing leaders to identify common mistakes that leaders must avoid. Erika promised a part two where we will get deeper into her work around the traits of great leaders.

As always, send your comments, questions, and show ideas to mike@schoolleadershipshow.com. Consider rating the podcast in iTunes and leaving a comment. And please pass the show along to your colleagues.

If you’d like help improving your productivity and leadership skills, please contact me at mike@schoolleadershipshow.com or on Twitter @doughtymike.

In this episode I interview Tim Bowman, a teacher, author, and entrepreneur from Australia. In addition to having the best accent of anyone I’ve interviewed yet, Tim has a great deal to share from a teacher’s perspective. His book Forget Being the Favourite: 88 Ideas on Teaching Differently is destined to become one of the most important and useful books for helping teachers improve their craft. We talk about some of the highest leverage strategies teachers can use and how to support that work from an administrator’s perspective. I learned a ton from Tim and really enjoyed our conversation.

Tim is also the founder of Class Creator, a software program designed to help schools with one of the most unpleasant tasks that leaders face - creating balanced class lists. You can learn more about Class Creator and Tim’s work at www.classcreator.io. You can reach Tim directly by email at Tim@classcreator.io.

As always, send your comments, questions, and show ideas to mike@schoolleadershipshow.com. Consider rating the podcast in itunes and leaving a comment. And please pass the show along to your colleagues.

If you’d like help improving your productivity and leadership skills, please contact me at mike@schoolleadershipshow.com or on Twitter @doughtymike.